Jonathan Eddy

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Jonathan Eddy, (c. 1726 – 1804), was a resident of Nova Scotia during the time of the American Revolutionary War. He was considered by some^{[citation needed]} to be a radical as he strongly encouraged the residents of Nova Scotia to join their American brothers in open revolt against the King George III and England and to become the fourteenth colony to sign the declaration of independence on 4 July 1776.

Jonathan Eddy had been a prominent businessman in Halifax^{[citation needed]} until 1775 when the revolution began in Massachusetts. A member of the House of Assembly at Halifax, he openly supported the Rebellion. Following Governor Francis Legge's crackdown on seditious persons and seeing an opportunity, Jonathan Eddy fled to his riding in Cumberland. He made frequent excursions to see Samuel Adams and the General Court of Massachusetts as well as to General George Washington. Here he was met with varying degrees of support for his proposed rebellion. Adams pledged full support, troops, weapons, ammunition, and more, while Washington basically said not to expect any support at all.^{[citation needed]} The General Court of Massachusetts made promises of support, but when the time came none was given.^{[citation needed]}

In August 1776, shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the new governor of Nova Scotia ordered Colonel Joseph Gorham's Royal Fencible Americans to secure Fort Cumberland and keep watch for any signs of an American invasion of the province from what is now Maine.^{[citation needed]} Jonathan Eddy, knowing he was being monitored by authorities loyal to the King, fled to Massachusetts where he was made a full colonel in the Continental Army and given authority to raise a regiment of his own with the sole purpose of invading Nova Scotia through Cumberland and Truro and then east into Halifax, securing the Royal Navy's last anchorage on the continent.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after General William Howe's army departed Nova Scotia to attack New York in 1776, Jonathan Eddy made his move. His force of 500 American militiamen and an unknown number of Nova Scotian rebels marched on Fort Cumberland. They attempted to storm the fort on 13 December 1776 and were repulsed, two more attempts were made on the 22 December and 23 December, but before long a British frigate arrived at the head of the Bay of Fundy with Canadian Regulars aboard and relieved the fort. Jonathan Eddy and his militia force fled back to Massachusetts leaving his Nova Scotian supporters to face the British reprisals alone.

Eddy's farm was destroyed at fort Lawrence, but little information is available about Jonathan Eddy after the failure at Fort Cumberland.